Another MPPS global2 blog

Month: June 2017

This unit, our integrated topic was on animal adaptations specifically in the desert. For this we were all assigned a partner and an animal or plant in the desert. Me and my partner Estella were given the Sturt’s Desert Pea. The Sturt’s desert Pea in our opinion was kind of hard. There wasn’t that much about it online, and to find adaptations we had to look a little deeper than just finding a list online on it’s features. We had to find it’s adaptations with context clues in text, but luckily we ended up finding a few.

We had a rubric for our projects on the different featured we had to include. A couple things were quite hard for us and some things we thought we did well. Our model, in my opinion wasn’t that amazing. We used modelling clay to make it, but it was small and didn’t have many labels. The display for it (it’s environment) was paper. Blue for the sky, and yellow for the sand. A lot more effort would of benefited our model, but unfortunately soft modelling clay that doesn’t dry isn’t the best material for a model.

Three facts I found interesting:

The Sturt’s desert Pea has a long tap root. This helps the plant reach water deep into the soil. This Bis one of the key adaptations for the Sturt’s Desert Pea. All living things need water to survive especially in the desert.

The plant also has a hard seed coat. To protect animals from eating the seeds, and also to store water in the dry, arid desert until the next rainfall.

They have downy hairs on their stems to protect them from wind, frost, rain, the sun, being eaten by animals, and to keep moist.

Understandings:

Because the Sturt’s Desert Pea is a plant, it needs special structural features to help it get water, because it’s not an animal and it can’t go walking around finding it’s own water.

The Sturt’s Desert Pea has helped me understand why plants have hairs on their stems. For lots of different reasons.

Questions:

We didn’t find any answers on this online so, do the black bosses do anything? We are pretty sure they don’t. At first the black boss seemed like the seeds or maybe even the fruit, but all the information online didn’t say anything about them.

The most important thing I’ve learnt from this project:

I have learnt from this project that when you are working in groups or partners, you should try your best to keep the amount of work even and balanced. At times it seemed like I was doing all the work, and sometimes even my partner Estella.

How I learned it:

On the day of the experiment, I realised how important it is to do balanced amount of work. I had the whole experiment to do, plus the data, observations, conclusion, reflection, and graphs. Even though Estella wasn’t actually there on the day, I now know for myself, and my partner in the future in high school and primary school.

What I will do with what I have learnt:

I can now, in the future when a teacher assigns a group project, get a better idea of how to balance the work we both need to do.

Goals for the next time I work in a group:

To check in with the progress that the other person is doing. This way I can get a better idea of how much more we have to do, how much we have done, and how long it’s going to take us to do the rest or the work. This is important so that you can understand what help your partner might need to complete the project, or if they can help you our as well.

Conclusion:

I have learnt a lot from this integrated topic. Not just about adaptations and the Sturt’s Desert Pea. I have also learnt important things such as, certain things you need to make a project better (by looking on the rubric.) I also found the topic really interesting and fun. Overall this term was a really effective in me and I think everyone else’s learning.